Housing agency wants to create homeowners

A Syracuse housing agency hopes to turn James Keene into the owner of the home he has rented on the city's Near West Side for 25 years.

Home Headquarters purchased 319 Marcellus St. with the goal of rehabilitating it and selling it to Keene, who raised five children at the home he shared with his late wife, Deborah.

"It's a long time to be renting at the same property,'' said Kerry Quaglia, executive director of Home Headquarters. "As part of the Near West Side Initiative, we're purchasing these properties, get them renovated and put them in the hands of homeowners. That's how you turn neighborhoods around.''

Today, 50 volunteers from Eric Mower & Associates launched the rehabilitation effort by planting flower beds, cutting down trees and tearing down an old wire fence.

Urban affairs editor Maureen Sieh will have more on this story in Saturday's Post-Standard. For comments and more, go here